


Endless Pieces

by Komatsu



Series: Various Melodies [3]
Category: Bravely Default (Video Game) & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/M, Gen, Just little things and side stories, Other, Side Stories
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-27
Updated: 2018-08-29
Packaged: 2019-07-03 04:26:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15811341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Komatsu/pseuds/Komatsu
Summary: Covered in Daydreams is the story of Edea and Ringabel creating a life, through steel forged in fire and tears. Now and then, other perspectives enter the stage, daydreams that their own cross into.This piece will hold the collection of them, the short pieces that are not shown in the main work. At least, the safe for work ones.





	1. Ch 24.5 - I Just Want My Wish to be True

**Author's Note:**

> I've written a few short pieces and conversations that didn't make it in the story proper. This is because of the perspective focusing on Edea or Ringabel, but I liked the pieces too much to give them up completely. One made it into the story proper, but I've reposted it here so that the main story remains cohesive.
> 
> Many more will follow! If you want to see something in particular, let me know!

"How do I look?" Ringabel asked for the fifth time in fifteen minutes, examining his hair in the mirror he'd found to hang on the wall. One strand in particular was being troublesome, and he swore was falling into his eyes purely to spite him. 

"You look great," Tiz replied for the fifth time. The younger boy was currently fidgeting with his coat. Ringabel doubted it was very often the younger boy had dressed in something so fine; perhaps only for special occasions and events. It looked good on him either way, a creamy tailcoat with a light blue waistcoat underneath. His hair was even slightly groomed and a _little_ less fluffy, the ends barely curling under the pounds of gel Ringabel had forced into it. The end result was a respectable young man, and Ringabel was so proud.

Braev was watching him as he fussed. Being under the eye of his future father-in-law was a bit unnerving and he could feel his heart race. Reluctantly stepping away from the mirror, Ringabel swallowed and adjusted his cravat, trying not to glance at Braev out of the corner of his eye.

"Everything will be fine, Ringabel," the older man told him. "Though, I am pleased to see that you've adopted a more appropriate hairstyle for the day."

"Yes, sir." Ringabel gingerly lifted a hand to his head. Instead of his usual extravagant pompadour, he had instead slicked his hair back over his head, using only its natural volume. It looked clean and classy, something that he might have styled daily back when he was Alternis. He hoped Edea liked it.

The door to their small, somewhat warm preparation room was cracked open, for air, and to hear the guests for the wedding as they began to arrive. At the noise of the small crowd, Ringabel bounced on his heels and went to peek out the door, watching them all trickle in to sit.

There was Barras and Holly and some man he couldn't quite recognize from this distance. Odd. He'd thought they'd kept the guest list short and sweet, limited to people they knew quite well, but perhaps Edea had sneaked someone in. The Venus sisters were coming in as well, and he watched Einheria try to herd them to the proper seats. Lord DeRosso, Sage Yulyana… or at least the Sage's staff, it was very hard to see the short old man in the crowd. Datz, Zatz, and the Proprietress were toward the back of the room, where she could watch the food and they could watch the door.

He wanted to continue to watch the proceedings, but instead the door swung open. Yelping in surprise, Ringabel stepped back as his future mother-in-law entered.

"Oh, look at you," Mahzer said, her hands over her mouth. "You look quite charming. So handsome for your big day!"

"Thank you," he said awkwardly. Could he call her Mother yet? Nothing else seemed to fit for today.

Mahzer rounded on her husband next, brushing off his pauldrons and ensuring that his cape was fastened tight. She reached up to touch his face, her hand brushing his beard for any hairs that were out of place. Braev stood there with the air of a man who was used to such scrutiny from his wife. Once she finished, the woman stepped back to examine her work. "There you are, Braev. And our lovely little girl is ready for you. She's in the room four doors down."

Braev took a deep breath, squaring himself up to his full impressive height. "Very well. We shall see you all shortly." He gestured to Tiz to follow him as he made to leave the room. Tiz, as Ringabel's attendant, was required to escort Agnès, Edea's attendant, to the altar. Privately, Ringabel thought it was also because it was very likely the Vestal would get lost on her way up there.

"Wait just one moment," Mahzer said, stopping her husband in his tracks, and she turned to Tiz. "Tiz, dear, come here."

Tiz, who had experience with doting mothers, seemed to know it was pointless to argue and immediately walked over to the waiting woman. Ringabel watched with bemusement as Tiz's hair was patted down further and his cravat straightened and tucked in, the young man closing his eyes at the attention. Once Mahzer had deemed it acceptable, she nodded at him, patted his cheek, and Tiz and Braev finally went on their way.

Then Ringabel was left alone with his mother-in-law. Future mother-in-law. Very soon to be mother-in-law. He looked her over, smiling at her dress. He'd never seen her in anything that looked so nice, not even as a child. It had been a long time since they'd had occasion to dress up...

"You look beautiful," he started, then faltered. What _was_ most appropriate to call her? The usual 'Lady Mahzer' now seemed too formal for his soon to be mother-in-law, but she wasn't yet his mother-in-law, and oooh, he was probably overthinking things.

Luckily, Mahzer didn't seem to have noticed his internal monologue. She smiled warmly up at him, and he was reminded painfully of the woman back in the world of his birth that he he had not seen in so, so long. "Thank you, Ringabel. You've always been so kind." She reached up to touch his cheek now, and push some of the strands of his pale hair back into place. "You're going to be a wonderful addition to the family. I'm glad it's official. Braev and I have long considered you a part of it."

He took a deep breath. "I… I know that now." He hadn't known that as a child. Alternis had been eternally grateful for the love and hospitality that the Lee family had shown him. He'd been in disbelief that people could be so kind to a wretch like him. But he'd never seen himself as part of the family, had never known they truly wanted him to _be a part of the family. He sighed, and reached up to touch her hands. They felt cool and soft, and he wrapped his fingers around them. "I'll do my best," he promised._

__

Again, the woman smiled, but this time, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him, giving him a hug. Carefully, he returned it, leaning his head against the top of her head. He hadn't been hugged like this since he was young, he thought. Mahzer had grown sick, and he had thought himself too old for such comforting moments. But now... after a few warm moments, she leaned back, and immediately fussed over the wrinkles the hug had created in his clothes.

__

From the slightly open door, he could hear music begin to start. He swallowed and took a deep breath.

__

"We should get in position," Mahzer suggested, and took the arm that he shakily offered her.

__

"Yes," he replied, his heart starting to pound in his chest. She would be standing in as the family member to give him to the union. It was the best they could do, given the circumstances, but he didn't mind and everyone had agreed it only made sense. She was the closest thing he would ever have to a mother.

__

Now, he could hear Tiz and Agnès being announced as attendants to the bride and groom. They would walk up to the altar and be part of the wedding, a symbol of the couple bringing their old bonds through to their new marriage.

__

"Let's go," Mahzer told him, patting his arm sympathetically as he halted at the door, breath stuttering

__

"Yes, let's go," he managed to reply and led her out the door. Now, it was time for him to finally be married to the love of his life.

__


	2. Ch 27.5 - We Thought About Our Fate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Alternis prepares for the D A T E, as Ringabel puts it, the two men take some time to work out their backstory as twins. How else can they explain how two such handsome men can exist at the same time?

He had a date.

A D A T E, as Ringabel had very unhelpfully spelled out for him. Alternis shoved the other man’s face away from him when Ringabel spelled it out for the second time, and scowled at his own reflection as he attempted to wash imaginary grime from his face.

“I’ve been on dates before,” he reminded the insufferable man as Ringabel laughed out of sight, having retreated back to Alternis’s room before Alternis made good use of the straight razor he now picked up in his hand. Tiz and Agnès had left the room like any decent people would so that Alternis could prepare himself for his evening out, but Ringabel had insisted that he needed to give him a ‘pep talk’.

“I know you have,” Ringabel said, with that condescending tone that one usually reserved to speaking to younger siblings. “But those hardly counted. They were work dates! This one is with a young lady who seems to have taken a fancy to you. As your brother, I’m so very proud.”

“You’re not my brother,” Alternis growled, scrapping at the stubble on his chin. Ringabel was… Ringabel was an anomaly and something that he tried not to think about, lest his head begin to ache more than it did after a binge with Holly and Barras. Ringabel, in a sense, was  _him_ , albeit a much more airheaded and flighty version, but they couldn’t begin to explain to civilians that there was more than one version of Luxendarc, and that the boundaries between them had been so thoroughly pierced as to allow travel. 'Brothers’ was the only way to explain why two “devastatingly handsome” identical young men existed, as Ringabel had put it.

“I am for now,” Ringabel said, leaning on the doorway, and though he still wore an easy smile on his face, it was less mocking for now, though no less infuriating. Alternis tried to ignore him and focus on rinsing his face for now. “And I think, my dear brother, that we should think of a proper backstory for the two of us. Just in case we’re asked.”

“The backstory is that our parents threw themselves into the Great Chasm the moment you opened your mouth,” Alternis bit. Backstory… that meant he would have to spend time thinking a past that was not his own, and trying to pretend that Florem hadn’t tried to chew him up and spit him out.

“A good start,” Ringabel said, brushing off his shoulder. He waited until the younger man had patted his face dry and exited the small bathroom that was attached to his sleeping quarters before continuing. “We can hardly tell her the truth of our existence, yes? And I’ve no doubt that she’ll ask about our family. Girls like to know those things.”

“Do not.”

“Trust me,” Ringabel said soothingly. His dark eyebrows furrowed with something that looked almost like concern. Were he anyone else, Alternis might almost believe he  _was_  concerned.  "If there’s anyone in this world who knows how you feel about your past, it’s  _me_. But I lost my memories, and those sharp edges of pain have been smoothed by ignorance. I know yours are still raw.“ He paused for a moment. "I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize either,” Alternis snapped, but the sincerity in Ringabel’s voice had seeped out some of his fight. Yes, this man was the only other person in this world who knew the hell he’d gone through as a child. “I suppose, that if she were to ask where I’m from, I… we can’t tell her that we… grew up in Florem, if you could even call it that. I… don’t know.” He just wanted to use Ancheim like he had before.

“Of course not,” Ringabel said, thinking. “And Eternia is out too, for obvious reasons. How about Caldisla?”

“We hardly look like Caldislans,” Alternis pointed out wryly. Blond hair as bright as theirs wasn’t common in that region, though he doubted it was common in many places. He’d mostly seen their shade of silver-blond among women in Florem, which was more unseen nowadays as it was covered up with vivid greens and purples.

“She doesn’t need to know that,” Ringabel insisted. “Besides, have you seen Caldisla lately? What a melting pot of beauties! Why, I remember a girl with the palest skin and long black hair, who said her mother had immigrated from Eisenberg, and that her father had been visiting from Grandship when they met.”

Alternis elected to ignore him. “That aside, why not Ancheim? We - I -  _we_  have used it before.” And it was likely their father, if one could call their sire that, had been from Ancheim to begin with, given the natural tan of their skin when it was actually exposed to sunlight and the shape of their eyes. His doctors had said the same during his physicals. Either way, enough of that region was present in their features that they could pass for men of Ancheim themselves, and had.

“You know the rule! You should never use the same trick twice,” Ringabel replied.

“That’s not a rule.”

“How about this,” Ringabel said, sighing deeply and completely ignoring both Alternis and Common Sense. “We were orphans from Ancheim, and made our way to Caldisla, and that’s where Edea’s family found us!”

“Edea’s involved now, too?” Why.

“Of course she is.” Ringabel flapped a hand now, gesturing to the photographs that were sitting on Alternis’s writing desk. Alternis moved over to flip them face down. “With how deeply involved with the Lee family we are, we can’t possibly forget them in our new backstory! Besides, how else was I to meet my wife and fall in love with her? Why, even from a young age, she was spirited and beautiful and I knew she was the one!”

Alternis sighed, once more tuning out the idiot so that he could get dressed in the shirt and jacket he had finally decided on, the ones that would make him look like a normal person for once. He did not normally like to be shirtless around others, but he didn’t have the energy to try and kick Ringabel out. Besides, it wasn’t as though he didn’t have anything the other man hadn’t seen before.

He was so focused on tugging out imaginary wrinkles from his shirt that he almost missed Ringabel’s question.

“Do you want to be in love with her, too?”

“I beg your pardon?” Alternis snapped, confused and more than a little horrified. Surely the man was not just asking if he wanted Alternis to admit to having a torch for his wife. Who did that?! Edea was going to  _hear_  about this.

“In our backstory,” Ringabel was saying now, ignoring the way that Alternis fumed. “I think that would add a touch of drama - two twin boys, both in love with the same woman, who can choose only one!”

“I hate you,” Alternis said.

“Yes, that is how you felt when we married.”

“No, I really do hate you.”

“ _In any case_ ,” Ringabel said, turning around and waving his hand. Alternis eyed the heavy astronomy book he’d left out on his desk, wondering if it would be enough to knock the other man unconscious without killing him or causing more amnesia. “ _That’s_  why you stayed behind in Caldisla when Edea and I accompanied Agnès on her journey. Tiz, of course, met the Vestal in Caldisla as the last of the Norende survivors. Edea, who did not know she was pregnant, decided to join Agnès’s cause, and I went with my beloved wife to keep an eye on her and to pilot their airship.”

“You mean to say that I just stayed behind in Caldisla because I was salty?” Alternis asked, crossing his arms. “So why is now any different?” And why was he entertaining this insanity?

“Well, perhaps you also had other things happening?! I don’t know… a promotion to Knight, or some such. Whatever you would like - it’s your backstory, too. Do what you’d like. Now that I’m thinking about it, though, it may help if we should leave Edea’s pregnancy complications the way that it is. We can say we called you to Eternia after we put her in the healing tower, and you decided to join the group in her place. That’s what we said earlier, isn’t it?”

“Because it’s true,” Alternis pointed out. “More or less.” He wasn’t  _permanently_  replacing Edea, heavens no, but on their return to their respective airships, they had encountered several groups of smaller monsters. The fiends had been no match for a party with two Dark Knights, one who was in his prime.

“More or less,” Ringabel agreed, sitting down on the edge of Alternis’s bed. He leaned over, to prop his chin in his hands. “I think that should suffice, though. So long as we say that we grew up with Edea and her family, the details are easily changed from Eternia to Caldisla if she should ask for any stories.”

“Do women actually do that?” Alternis asked, making a face. He had been on dates in the past, but those  _had_  been working dates with some of his coworkers, and said coworkers hadn’t bothered to ask any personal questions. They had either already known everything, or hadn’t actually cared about him personally. Now that Ringabel wasn’t raising his blood pressure, he took his black jacket off the hanger he had left it on and began to pull it on, anxious to get it all over with.

“Some. Depends on the woman, really. I could never really divulge any details about my past, given the amnesia, but they would pester me for whatever I could remember,” Ringabel explained.

“Hopefully, this one won’t pry,” Alternis said, leaning against the wall. “I don’t need to get personal with her. I only need to get her secrets out.”

“And have a bit of fun, I hope,” Ringabel replied. “The girl is quite lovely. I wouldn’t mind taking her out myself, were I not married.”

“I am going to tell your wife you said that.”

“She knows I mean it in the best way possible,” Ringabel hastened to clarify. “I would take her out not because I’m interested, but because I love treating beautiful women to good food! There’s nothing wrong with that!”

“So, if there’s nothing wrong with it, why don’t you take this one out? You told me yourself that you’re married and you can’t.”

“Because I am married, and even  _I_  know that married men don’t have dates with women who aren’t their wives,” Ringabel snapped, and thoroughly ruined the illusion by sticking out his tongue. “Are you trying to get me in trouble? You know that I have eyes only for my beloved.”

“As do I,” Alternis replied, averting his eyes to the pictures he’d hidden from view. “I’m doing this for her.”

With his gaze centered on the frames, he didn’t see Ringabel stand until the other man had draped a heavy arm around his shoulders. He groaned his distaste and lifted a hand to grab the offending arm.

“Now now, my little brother,” Ringabel started.

“Aren’t we twins?” Alternis interrupted, pushing him away. Had they decided on being twins? He couldn’t quite remember now.

“We can be twins! We might have to be, given how we’re identical in all but name-”

“And personality, intelligence, charm - ”

“-Buuuuut one of us still has to be born first, so I call dibs. I _am_ older than you, after all. I have several more months of life experience,” Ringabel insisted as though Alternis had not said a word. “So I was saying, my brother, I wish you the very best of luck on your date. Tiz and I will be watching, of course. Wave us down if you need us!”

“Why.”

“For moral support.”

“I don’t need it.”

They were still arguing when Tiz peeked his head in to check on them, took one look at the two men, and promptly shut the door again.


End file.
